by Unknown
Aaron and Cassie started to back out of the room. “And where are you two going? We are all eating together here tonight. This is a celebration that the house is still here and we are all alive!” Mary had her hands on her hips and a look which brooked no arguments.
Aaron looked to me for help and I smiled and, putting my arm around him, led him to a chair. Mary did the same with Cassie, “You will soon learn, Aaron, that when Mistress Mary speaks, we all jump.”
Their embarrassment lasted no more than two spoonfuls of the superbly cooked food. We chatted away and I discovered how hard life had been. “Lots of slaves ran off and there was no one left to work the fields. We weren’t as badly off as most for we had free men working for us. Colonel Boswell’s place, well that suffered. My pappy couldn’t stop the boys from running. We had to help him out.”
“Well Colonel Boswell is dead now so I will have to go into town tomorrow and see Mr Abercrombie.”
“It sure is good to have you back Captain Hogan.” He lowered his voice. “She sure is a fine lady. When did you get married?”
“We haven’t. I’ll need your help to organise that.” He seemed delighted at the prospect. “How many workers do we have now then?”
The worker’s quarters were some way from the main house. “We are down to ten, sir; six men and four women. But they are all hard workers.”
“I’ll see you all get the pay you have coming to you.”
“That don’t matter sir.”
I remembered my father in Ireland scraping a living together and I knew that it did matter. “You will get your pay.” I was not certain if I had any money to pay them but I could see the horses I had brought back with me. Somehow they would get paid.
“You thought we were white trash. Have you had trouble?”
“Yes sir. Some of the poor white folks see this big old house and don’t like a nigra living here. That’s why I had the shotgun.”
Just then a stone was thrown through the window and a voice shouted, “Come on out nigger! We don’t like it that you live in the slave quarters but we ain’t having you living in white folk’s homes.”
Cassie looked terrified but I winked at her and put my finger to my lips. I gestured for Ritchie, Dago and Cecil to get their guns and go out of the back door. I fastened my holster around my waist.
“You better come out quick or we’ll whip your black skin off’n your miserable black back.”
I nodded and pointed to the door. He gave a half smile and went. I was pleased to see that Mary was not put out by this at all. When we reached the door I stood to the side and Aaron opened it.
“That’s better now…”
The leader got no further and I stepped out next to Aaron. I saw that there were about fifteen men with wooden staves and shotguns. There were a couple of cheap looking women at the back too.
I stepped in front of Aaron. “Now before you are thrown from my land, which one of you threw that stone through the window?”
The large man at the head of the crowd said, belligerently, “Me and what will you do about it?”
He was just four yards from me and I covered it in a couple of heartbeats. I had my pistol out and I smacked him across the face, hard. He fell screaming to the ground. “I will do that and I trust you to speak a little more politely to me. I am used to my orders being obeyed. Now tomorrow you will arrange to have my broken window repaired.”
He laughed and I was pleased to see teeth come out when he did so. “You talk mighty big for one man.” He stood. “You wouldn’t talk so big without that hog leg.”
I nodded, holstered my gun and then hit him in the stomach with my left hand before punching him on the side of the head with my right. He fell to the ground and I picked him up and head butted him. He lay on the floor this time he was still.
“Apparently I can talk that big without a gun.”
His cronies moved forwards and a smaller version of the man I had felled yelled, “There’s just one of him and his gun is in his holster.”
He rushed forward and I pulled the Colt out. It was aimed at his face and he was less than two yards away. “Now my gun is out of my holster and you are about to die.”
I then heard Aaron cocking his shotgun. “And my two barrels will take a whole bunch of you others out.”
Then I heard the guns of my comrades being cocked and Dago’s voice called out. “And I am pretty certain that we can kill the rest.”
They turned to run and I, firing my gun in the air I yelled, “Stop! I need reparations.” I pointed to the broken glass. “I want the money for that before you leave, or you ain’t leaving.”
They went to their unconscious leader and took money from his pocket. They handed it to me. One of them said, “That enough?”
“It’ll do. Now if I ever see any of you around here again I will shoot first and ask questions later and if any of you insult my estate manager, Mr Jarvis, again, I will horsewhip you. Do you understand?”
They all nodded dumbly. As they carried their fallen friend one asked, “Who are you sir?”
“I am Captain Jack Hogan formerly of Boswell’s Wildcats and me and my friends are here to stay so spread the word.”
When they had gone we returned to the dining room. The glass had been cleared and Mary said sweetly, “Dessert anyone?”
“I’m starving,” I said.
Cecil laughed, “Well it looks like it could be fun around here.”
Chapter 19
The next day I left Dago to watch the house while Aaron and I rode over to see his father. Mary, of course objected as she didn’t think there was any danger.
“Ma’am, I am still tired after that long journey and my wound is playing up. You wouldn’t object to an old soldier resting up for a day on the front porch would you?”
She was not taken in but she smiled sweetly and said, “Of course.”
Cecil and Ritchie rode into Charleston. We needed supplies but they also needed somewhere to stay. Both had jobs they wanted to start as soon as possible.
Aaron and I set off on the few miles ride to the old Boswell plantation. “How is your dad these days?”
“Not so good. He remembers it from the days of Colonel Boswell. He complains it needs a lick of paint and some loving sir.”
I was not sure that it would get that. I had hoped that it would have ridden the storm of war but then I remembered that the colonel had spent little time there and he had put all of the money into, men, horses, uniforms and weapons. Most of those lay on the field of Gettysburg. He had wasted his money.
When I rode up the long drive I saw that the white paint on the fence was flaking and the grass was longer than I remembered it. It was sad to see the faded beauty of a once beautiful building. From a distance it looked as though nothing had changed but closer up you could see the boards which needed repairs and the broken windows which needed fixing.
We tied our horses to the metal negro jockeys which stood on either side of the colonnaded portico. One of the steps was loose and creaked alarmingly as we walked up. Aaron looked at me and shrugged. “It’s sad isn’t it captain?”
“It sure is and it seems we came back none too soon.”
Jarvis’ hair was whiter and his eyes seemed to have sunken back into his head. He beamed a smile at me. “It is good to see you sir.“ He noticed my uniform, “Captain Hogan!” He looked beyond me, “Where is the colonel sir?”
Aaron put his arm around his father as we led him into the house.
“The colonel won’t be coming back Jarvis. He fell at Gettysburg.”
It was fortunate that Aaron was holding his father or he would have fallen. We took him to a chair and Aaron scurried off. “He fell bravely Jarvis, leading his men.” It would do Jarvis no good to know that he had been leading them in a disastrous retreat.
“But the end result is the same Captain Hogan. He won’t be coming back.” The old servant swept a hand around the room. “What will happen to his lovely home?” The wo
rds, ‘and me’ remained unsaid but hung in the air like an early morning mist.
Aaron brought a glass of, what smelled like whiskey. The old man was going to refuse it but I said firmly, “You will drink that Jarvis and then we can begin to plan a way out of this predicament.”
He nodded and drank the whiskey. Aaron and I sat on two of the other chairs. I thought back to when I had sat here and planned the purchase of my own home in those hopeful early days of the war. That was a different world and those dreams were dead. We had to be practical and plan for a different future.
“Now the first thing I will do is to see Mr Abercrombie. We need the legal niceties of the colonel’s death tying up. If things do not turn out the way we hope then you, your wife and your family will come to live with us at my place.” Aaron’s eyes filled with gratitude.
“What do you mean sir?”
“I do not know what debts the colonel left. It may be that the lawyer needs to sell the house to pay his debts. He may have left the house to one of his family.”
“No sir!” Jarvis’ voice became harsh. “He would never do that. He said that you boys were his family.” He suddenly remembered something. “Mr Murphy?”
“He died too, and Harry and Jed.” A name suddenly came into my mind. “What happened to Jem?”
Jem had been invalided out of the Wildcats early in the war. Jarvis shook his head. “He died last year when the Yankees raided the town. He was walking down the street and he got killed by a shell from the Yankee ships.”
It was a shame. I liked Jem. “We have to carry on without these good people. It’s the living who will need our help.” I stood and rubbed my hands. “Now I will go to Charleston. Aaron here will stay and give you whatever help you need. I have men getting some supplies in town and we will bring some here.” I turned to Aaron, “Make a list of what needs doing eh Aaron?”
He nodded, “Thank you captain. You are a good man.”
I shook my head, “I am repaying the debt I owe to the colonel. He saved me when he came aboard the Rose that day and gave me a life. I will try to save his home for him.”
As I rode Copper along the road to town I wondered how I would achieve that. I had some money with me but I would need that for my own plantation. I dreaded to think what had become of my investments. In a way I was dreading this meeting with Mr Abercrombie.
Charleston shocked me as I rode along its once graceful avenues. The random shelling by Union warships had destroyed many fine buildings, including churches and torn up beautiful trees and gardens. It was like riding through a war. We had never thought that Charleston would suffer so. Although when Colonel Boswell had returned, following his wound, he had been somewhat depressed. I could now see why.
Mr Abercrombie’s offices were in the commercial district. This part of town looked to have escaped much of the damage. I hitched Copper to the rail and walked into the quiet white washed building. A diminutive figure was seated at the desk in the entrance. He looked up at me and scratched his nose with inky fingers.
“Yes sir, how may I help you?”
“I am Captain Jack Hogan formerly of the 1st Virginia Scouts and I would like to see Mr Abercrombie please.”
“I will see if he is free.”
I smiled as the tiny man scurried away. He was the clerk version of Sergeant Major Mulrooney. He served Mr Abercrombie well. He was only away a few moments and seemed disappointed as he said, “You may go in. Can I offer you a drink? Mint tea perhaps?”
“That would be kind.”
I entered the office. I had never been in here before for Mr Abercrombie had come out to the plantation to deal with my paperwork. I had only visited the office when I had been guarding the colonel. We had always waited outside with the horses. It was an opulently furnished office with fine leather chairs and a magnificent mahogany desk. The shelves were lined with neatly arranged books. My spirits rose as I hoped that Mr Abercrombie might have good news for me.
He held out his hand. “Good to see you er...” he peered at my collar, “Captain Hogan. Please sit.”
He waited until his clerk had brought in my tea and then asked, “Is this visit to Charleston a brief one?”
He came straight to the point and I liked that. “No sir, I have been discharged from the army.” I took a sip of my tea. There was no easy way to say this. “I am here with bad news sir. Colonel Boswell died at Gettysburg.”
The old man took off his glasses and pinched his nose. He was silent for a few moments and I sipped my tea. He coughed and replaced his glasses. “Did he suffer?”
“No more than the many other men who fell on that day.”
“I am sorry captain that was crass of me. You and the other fine young men… were many killed?”
“Almost all of them.”
He shook his head. “There will be a time for grieving but I can see that you are a practical man.” He suddenly looked at me. “Quite remarkable. You have business of your own to conduct with me and yet you wish to deal with the estate of a dead man first. You are indeed a loyal friend.” There was little I could say to that. “Hargreaves, bring me in the Boswell file.”
Outside I heard the crash of the guns as they began their daily bombardment. “Is that hard to bear Mr Abercrombie?”
“Compared with what you boys have to put up with in battle no but it is petty. It serves no purpose and does nothing to destroy the Confederacy, if that is their aim. It is like a small vindictive child breaking a toy for no reason at all.” The file was brought in. “Thank you Hargreaves. No visitors, until Captain Hogan has left us.”
He untied the string which bound it together and laid some documents in a line before him. He scanned them until he seemed satisfied. Colonel Boswell came to see me on his last leave whilst he was convalescing. He wrote a new will out.” He peered at me like an owl. “The wound disturbed him somewhat?”
I smiled grimly, “He nearly died at the battle of Kelly’s Ford. He was lucky to be saved.”
“Quite. Well he rewrote the will. I should read this in the presence of all the interested parties but, as you will hear when I read it to you that might prove difficult.”
He then read the will out to me. It was written in plain English so that there would be no ambiguity. Jarvis and the other slaves were given their freedom. As far as I knew that would only apply to Jarvis and his wife now as the other slaves had run off. They were allowed to live their lives out at the plantation. The plantation was left to those members of the Wildcats who survived the war. The colonel’s investments were placed in trust to pay for the upkeep of the estate.
He leaned back in his chair and removed his glasses. “So you can see my dilemma. Apart from yourself how many Wildcats remain?”
“Dago Spinelli, Cecil Mulrooney, Carver Ritchie; they are all here with me now. Carlton James and David Dinsdale, they are in the Shenandoah Valley. They are the only ones who remain alive.”
Mr Abercrombie looked genuinely upset. “How immeasurably sad, that virtually a whole generation has been wiped out.” He shook himself. “This maudlin attitude will get us nowhere. I will write to Mr James and Mr Dinsdale and tell them of their good fortune. You say the others are here with you?”
“Yes sir. They are staying with me until they can find their feet.”
“You learned much from James Boswell. I shall miss him. He was like the son I never had. He was a fine young man, who was badly treated by an uncaring family. I will come with you and we can give both them and Jarvis the news.”
“Might I ask about the investments, sir?“ I waved an airy hand. “Charleston does not seem prosperous and the plantation looks to be run down.”
“Charleston is no longer prosperous and as for the plantation; I apologise. That was remiss of me. I should have made funds available to Jarvis to continue its upkeep. No, Captain Hogan the investments of James Boswell and yourself are doing well for they are not based here in the Confederate States of America but in Liverpool.”
&n
bsp; “Liverpool? In Britain?”
“Yes. I believe your home was close to there.”
“Just across the water.”
“And that in itself is appropriate.” He took off his glasses and sipped his own mint tea, “When the war began there were a few of us, here in Charleston, who realised that trade would dry up. We gathered investors such as yourself and James and we set up a company in Liverpool called the Dixie Line.” He smiled. “It seemed an apt name for such a venture. We had ships built in Liverpool; the ‘Richmond’ and ‘Jefferson Davis’ were the first two. They began to trade with Spain as well as running the blockade. With the trade embargo they found many ports with which to trade. You are a rich man and James Boswell’s heirs are also rich. The company is a British company although the major shareholders, apart from you and James’ heirs are myself and two other lawyers here in Charleston. The only difficulty we have, at the moment, is cash flow but we have a few thousand dollars held in reserve here in Charleston. We shall call at the bank and draw some out for yourself and the others.”
I was flabbergasted. I had expected to be impoverished by the war and, ironically, the war had made me rich. I wondered what Danny and Harry would have made of it all. Had they survived then they too would share in the good fortune. If only the colonel had held his nerve that day at Gettysburg then they might have lived.
It was early afternoon when we reached my home. I realised, as we rode up the drive, that I needed a name for it now that I lived here. I would leave that for Mary. I saw the horses tied up outside and knew that my men had returned. Aaron was still with his father and so Cassie took us in.
I smiled when Mary flashed me an irritated look. “You should have warned me that you were bringing visitors back Jack. The house is a mess.”
Mr Abercrombie gave me a questioning look. “Mr Abercrombie this is the lady I am to marry, Mistress Mary Malone. Mary this is my lawyer Mr John Abercrombie.”
He took her hand and kissed it, “Congratulations my dear.” He nodded to me. “James always said you were lucky. He was right.”
“Cassie can you ask the other gentlemen to join us. Mr Abercrombie is here to speak with them also.”